TikTok couple’s parenting act divides

An influencer couple were forced to backtrack after their actions were branded “morally unacceptable” when they took their children on a cruise.

An influencer couple have been forced to backtrack after they revealed that they went to dinner on a cruise and left their young children sleeping in their cabin.

Abby and Matt Howard took their sons Griffin, two and August, one, on a seven-night cruise.

However after taking the children to dinner for five of the nights it became clear “they weren’t enjoying it”.

In an Instagram story Abby explained that the couple decided to go to dinner alone while their children slept and the couple FaceTimed video monitors to make sure they were ok.

“We switched our dinner time to after their bedtime and FaceTimed the monitors while we ate. And that worked out much better for everyone,” Abby said.

Abby and Matt Howard sparked backlash because followers thought they went to dinner while their sons slept during their seven-night cruise. (Instagram)

However her story received a huge amount of negative backlash and the couple took to TikTok to clarify that a family member was in fact with the children in the cabin the whole time.

“We take our roles as parents extremely seriously and we love our children more than anything in the entire world, and we’re very protective of our kids,” Matt said.

“We had someone with our children at all times on this boat. Period.”

In the video, Abby explained that she deleted the Instagram story because “she could see that it was causing concern and misunderstanding”.

The couple took to TikTok on Monday night to reveal what had really happened. (Instagram)

She thanked followers for being “concerned about the safety and wellbeing” of their children.

“As their parents, that is our first and foremost main concern.... So, thank you,” she said.

“But I do want to clarify that we have not, would not, will not ever leave our children unattended. We would never, ever want to put them in harms way in any way.”

Followers were quick to respond to the video.

“I knew there was more to it,” one person said.

“This makes more sense,” another added.

One person, who said she was a babysitter, said it was common for parents to watch monitors of their children sleep even if she was there with them.

The couple were forced to clarify what had happened on the cruise after some nasty comments online.

One Reddit user said: “It’s literally common sense that you do not leave a baby alone unsupervised.

Abby's original Instagram story which was later deleted.

The couple were forced to film a TikTok video explaining that their children were not alone.

“If it was socially and morally acceptable to leave babies unsupervised by an adult, then baby sitting services would not be a thing.

“Are they seriously that f****** dumb? Do they not watch the news, have they not seen what happened to Madeline McCann?”

Another person said: “For them to post about it like it’s some genius parenting hack is just wild.

“They are irresponsible teenagers in adult bodies.”

Going to dinner while children sleep in hotel rooms may seem controversial to some but many hotels offer baby monitoring services with long range monitors so parents can enjoy a meal while watching their children sleep.

The couple, who have been together since high school, have more than 5.3 million followers on TikTok more than seven million subscribers on YouTube.